Senate seeks to protect property owners with eminent domain fix

The state Senate tackled the controversial issue of eminent domain this week, sending the House a bill that provides strong new protections for Texas property owners.

I joined my colleagues in a unanimous vote on SB 18, which prohibits the government or a private entity from taking property if it is not for public use.

Sen. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio

The measure would also give property owners more rights regarding easements across their land and â€” for the first time in Texas â€” allow them to repurchase property if a project doesn’t show any progress in 10 years.

The issue of eminent domain has been simmering in Texas for years. The Legislature tried but failed on two previous occasions to mend loopholes in the law. Both times, critics said the effort did not go far enough. Despite the stated intent of the authors and the comprehensive nature of this bill, it has critics as well.

Some say that SB 18 could still allow the taking of private property for non-public purposes through the “commingling” of government and private entities, particularly in the area of toll road development. That is no small charge, given the widespread and passionate public opposition to the proposed Trans Texas Corridor, which is no longer on the drawing board.

I agree with my colleague, Sen. Craig Estes, the bill’s author, that the measure does not allow such public-private commingling. As a co-author of the bill, I believe it will provide important new protections for property owners in Texas, and I was glad to give it my support and my vote.

I didn’t believe, however, that eminent domain needed an emergency declaration by Gov. Perry, giving the bill a head start over other pressing legislation. We could have passed it at any time with the same effect.

Many of us in the Legislature are waiting for the governor to lend the same sense of urgency to education, basic human services and others programs that are threatened by deep budget cuts, but that didn’t happen in his State of the State address on Tuesday.

The governor spoke again about his vision for a new Texas Century â€” marked by innovation, a robust job market, prosperity for Texas families and businesses, and economic progress â€” but he refused to acknowledge that the state’s unprecedented budget shortfall poses a crisis for education, health programs and human services. And once again he raised objections to using the Rainy Day Fund to help close the funding gap.

Under the spending levels that the governor supports, public schools across Texas will lose thousands of teachers, class sizes will increase and instruction will suffer. Fewer students will be able to attend college because funding will be slashed for financial aid.

The governor said that Texas has been a state of unlimited opportunities, and he is right. But that cannot continue to be true when our children’s education, along with child protection and fundamental health services, are not adequately funded.

I share the governor’s goal for a thriving Texas Century, but the priorities he outlined won’t get us there. The depth and breadth of the cost-cutting he currently endorses will hobble our efforts to excel and compete.